Louis C.K.

"I'm buying a Cinnabon... at the airport... I arrived at. You understand why that's extra disgusting, right? Because when you're at the airport you're leaving from, you can say, "Oh, I gotta eat. I need some food, because I might be trapped in the sky forever, so I should eat right now." But I've landed. The trip is over. I'm 20 minutes from my house where I got bananas and apples and sh*t. And I'm sitting on my luggage just f*ckin' eating a Cinnabon with a fork and knife."-Louis C.K.

Louis C.K. has been writing and telling jokes for two decades, but it was a snippet of an interview he gave to Conan O’Brien in 2008 that helped the agitated, balding curmudgeon break through. Since the “Everything is amazing right now, and nobody’s happy” clip went viral, Louis C.K. emerged as one of the most popular comedians in America. And if you still haven’t heard of him, you will: Grantland’s Chuck Klosterman opined that the second season of Louie, C.K.’s offbeat, under-watched FX comedy is “like the Beatles in ’66 or maybe Joe DiMaggio in ’41." If that kind of effusive praise doesn’t get you watching, nothing will.

MAGNETISM

If anyone questions Louis C.K’s sex appeal, it’s C.K. himself. The pale, stocky, balding comedian often uses his own genetic misfortune as a punchline. There’s the bit when he describes sex with himself as a “woman’s bottom” or that one where he questions his wife’s ability to have sex with him for eight years (“She took 500 for the team”). That attitude may be the reason (one of many, most likely) that C.K. and his wife, Alix Bailey, are no longer together. Thank God he’s famous.

SUCCESS

Although Louis C.K. is best known for his onstage persona thanks to his short-lived HBO sitcom Lucky Louie and his far more successful FX series Louie, the veteran comedian has arguably had more success behind the camera. His writing credits include The Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Dana Carvey Show, and The Chris Rock Show, for which he won an Emmy for Best Writing in a Variety or Comedy Series. C.K. also wrote and directed the cult classic Pootie Tang, and co-wrote the Chris Rock films Down to Earth and I Think I Love My Wife. Since becoming an actor, C.K. has appeared in the films Role Models, The Invention of Lying and the highly acclaimed series Parks and Recreation, to go along with his own two shows. His career as a stand-up comedian has been even more prolific. He's performed his routine on every major late-night talk show while starring in three taped specials: Shameless, Chewed Up and Hilarious. For someone filled with such self-hate, he sure has done well for himself.

Louis C.K. Biography

As you may have guessed, Louis C.K. is not the D.C. native’s real name. Born Louis Szekely to Mary Louise, a software engineer, and Luis, an economist (they were both Harvard grads), Louis moved with his family to Mexico when he was seven, and to this day maintains Spanish as his first language. C.K. soon moved back to the States (Boston, specifically), and it’s there that he discovered the likes of Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor and George Carlin, comedic icons who inspired him to do what he does. Another inspiration for C.K. was his mother, who divorced his father and raised four children on her own in Newton, Massachusetts. Determined to give his mother a better life, C.K. worked as an auto mechanic after high school before finally building the courage to give stand-up a go. His first try was, by all accounts, an unmitigated disaster. With a five-minute slot at a comedy club’s open mic night, C.K. had only two minutes worth of material and bombed, an experience that kept him off the stage for two years. Eventually, C.K. returned to the circuit and began landing paying gigs, including an opening spot for Jerry Seinfeld. The success was enough to convince C.K to move to Manhattan in 1989.

louis c.K. becomes a successful writer

Louis C.K. will always be known first and foremost as a stand-up comedian, but it’s his work as a writer for shows like The Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, The Dana Carvey Show, and The Chris Rock Show that helped him gain traction in Hollywood. His work on The Chris Rock Show was particularly acclaimed, earning him three Emmy nominations and one win. C.K. would continue his writing partnership with Chris Rock to varying varying degrees of success. The hip-hop parody Pootie Tang, which C.K. co-wrote and directed, was mauled by critics but found new life as a cult classic. His other feature, the black-and-white indie Tomorrow Night was less fortunate. After screening at Sundance, it was pretty much never to be seen of or heard from again.

louis c.K. takes center stage

Louis C.K. was still unfamiliar to mainstream America in the mid-aughts when Variety and the Hollywood Reporter both chose him as a comic to watch. As C.K.’s life became increasingly more domesticated (a wife and two kids will do that), his act became increasingly angry, honest and offensive. Audiences ate it up. In 2006, Lucky Louie, which was about a husband and father dealing with mundane situations, premiered on HBO. Although it gained a cult following, it was canceled after only 12 episodes. Some blamed the low ratings, but we’re guessing the ugly depiction of sex after marriage, the garish male nudity and the excessive swearing had something to do with it, too.

louis c.k. strikes gold the second time around

Despite the failure of his first show, Louis C.K. was still one of the most popular stand-up comedians in the world, thanks to a rant on modernity on Late Night With Conan O’Brien that went viral and a series of stand-up specials that revealed the professional grump as a modern-day George Carlin. C.K. began landing supporting roles in feature films like Role Models and The Invention of Lying, as well as a role on Parks and Recreation, all en route to his second stab at serialized television, Louie. This time around, C.K. had pure autonomy. FX allowed him to write, direct, edit, and star in the semi-autobiographical show about a recently divorced New York comedian who must adjust to life as single dad. So far so good. Hailed for its complete defiance of a traditional narrative arc or any standard sitcom conventions, Louie has been hailed as one of the best comedies on television and was renewed for a third season. Lucky Louis indeed.

Louis C.K.: Live At The Beacon Theater

True to form, Louis C.K. has totally upended conventional ways of being a comedian and has self-released his latest DVD, Live at the Beacon Theater. He's selling it for $5 on a website he created. Yes, DVD distributors are probably none too pleased, considering he's already sold around $200,000 worth in just a few days.